Queens Park 2 Man United 3

Paul Scholes

Queens Park Ran­gers 2 Man­chester Uni­ted 3, Loftus Road, Eng­lish Pre­mier Lea­gue, Dec­ember 10, 1994. Man­chester Uni­ted edged out Queens Park Ran­gers by 3-2 dur­ing an en­ter­tain­ing and thrill­ing mat­ch at Shepherd´s Bush. Paul Scho­les fou­nd the back of the net on two oc­ca­sions for the vis­it­ors, whi­le mid­field col­league Roy Ke­ane also made the scoresheet. 

Sir Al­ex Ferguson´s title chal­len­ging Man­chester Uni­ted te­am had de­feated mid-ta­ble Nor­wich City by 1-0 at Old Traf­ford cour­tesy of a 36 min­ute goal from Eric Can­tona in their pre­vi­ous Pre­mier Lea­gue fix­ture and the rein­ing Pre­miership cham­pi­ons were rid­ing high in the top flight. The West Lon­doners, for their part, entered the clash on the back of a much-need­ed and mor­ale-boost­ing 2-1 win ag­ainst neigh­bouring rivals West Ham Uni­ted at Loftus Road thanks to a goal apiece from Les Fer­dinand and Tre­vor Sin­clair in the fir­st ha­lf. And it was Fer­dinand who han­ded Queeens Park Ran­gers the lead ag­ainst the odds wi­th an un­stoppable shot which went pa­st the out­stretched right arm of Man­chester Uni­ted goal­keeper Ga­ry Wal­sh and in­to the top left cor­ner of the net af­ter 23 min­utes of en­ter­tain­ing ac­tion. Uni­ted gradu­ally took con­trol of pro­ceed­ings, tho­ugh, and had their equal­iser when Paul Scho­les head­ed ho­me a cross from the left el­ev­en min­utes la­ter. And wi­th on­ly one min­ute left of the fir­st ha­lf, Re­pub­lic of Ire­land play­er Roy Ke­ane put The Reds ahead for the fir­st time in the ga­me wi­th a well pla­ced shot bey­ond the reach of Ran­gers goal­keeper Sieb Dijkstra.

A mere two min­utes af­ter the re­sump­tion of the play, Scho­les re­gistered his sec­ond goal of the af­ter­noon as the twenty-year-old mid­field play­maker nod­ded an ex­cel­lently de­livered cor­ner from fel­low young­ster Si­mon Dav­ies in­to the net to make it it 3-1 to Man­chester Uni­ted. A nicely head­ed goal from Fer­dinand in the 64th min­ute of the tie pro­vided Ray Wilkins´s Queens Park Ran­gers wi­th some re­newed hope, but the men in red shirts held on to se­cure all three points. A great force in the middle of the park, Paul Scho­les made 718 fir­st te­am ap­pear­ances for Uni­ted be­tween 1994 and 2013, scor­ing 155 goals dur­ing the pro­cess. The Man­cuni­an made his Pre­mier Lea­gue de­but for Man­chester Uni­ted when he took the field as a sec­ond ha­lf sub­sti­tute for Lee Sharpe in a 3-2 de­feat ag­ainst Ips­wich To­wn at Port­man Road on the 24th of Septem­ber 1994, and played his last mat­ch for the Old Traf­ford club in a 5-5 Pre­mier Lea­gue draw wi­th West Brom­wich Al­bion at The Haw­thorns on the fi­nal day of the 2012-13 sea­son. Queens Park Ran­gers Te­am: Sieb Dijk­stra, Da­vid Bard­s­ley, Clive Wil­son, Alan Mc­Donald, Dan­ny Mad­dix, Si­mon Bark­er, Ste­ve Hodge, Andy Im­pey, Kev­in Gal­len, Les Fer­dinand, Tre­vor Sin­clair. Sub­stitutes: Ga­ry Cald­well, Ian Hol­lo­way, Brad­ley Al­len. Man­chester Uni­ted Te­am: Ga­ry Wal­sh, Ga­ry Ne­ville, Ste­ve Bru­ce, Ga­ry Pal­lister, De­nis Ir­win, Si­mon Dav­ies, Paul In­ce, An­drei Kanchel­s­kis, Bri­an Mc­Clair, Roy Ke­ane, Paul Scho­les. Sub­stitutes: Nicky Butt, Keith Gil­lespie, Kev­in Pilkington.

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